South-African-born, London-based artist Lisa Brice challenges traditional representations of women in Western art history through her figurative painting practice. The female nude, depicted in Brice's signature cobalt blue, is reclaimed from a male gaze that seeks to disempower women as passive objects of desire. In individual and group portraits, set in studios and bars, women are liberated from the roles of model and muse. They are shown interchangeably brandishing paint brushes, as they capture their own likenesses (and that of their companions), or at rest, posing in front of mirrors and lounging against doors as they smoke cigarettes, breaking down hierarchies between the artist and the model. Whether confronting viewers with a direct gaze or seemingly unaware of their presence, Brice's women stand as empowered figures driven by their own desires, rather than those of the spectator.
The characters and settings that appear in Brice's paintings are composites built from diverse images collected from magazines, the internet, personal photographs and, above all, art history. 'All painting is a lineage - it's all a conversation with what's come before,' she says. Elements of well-known paintings by European male artists, including Degas, Manet, Picasso and Vallotton, are echoed and reimagined in her interior scenes. Yet, crucially, she does not solely respond to the male giants of Western art history, but recovers an under-acknowledged lineage of work by female painters. The American Abstract Expressionist Helen Frankenthaler is shown pouring puddles of cobalt blue paint onto a canvas, images of Dutch painter Charley Toorop and Yayoi Kusama are fused in an act of self-portraiture, while Gertrude Stein (as painted by Picasso in 1905-6) is placed next to Vallotton's seated figure from The White and the Black (1913), establishing intergenerational dialogues between female cultural figures. Early years working as a printmaking assistant for South-African-based artist Sue Williamson instilled Brice's interest in repetition and her characters, including a hissing black cat taken from Manet's Olympia (1863), recur across her body of work as she builds, in her own words, 'a small army of feminine figures'.
Squeezed straight from the tube, the striking cobalt blue that dominates Brice's palette has accrued meaning through its application within her practice. Initially employed in an attempt to capture the blue light of a neon sign and the atmospheric hue of twilight, it has become a reference to the Trinidadian 'blue devil', evidencing the close ties she maintains with the island following a residency at CCA7 in Port of Spain in the late 1990s. The 'blue devil' is a Carnival character evoked by masqueraders who cover their bodies in (usually blue) paint or tinted mud. The former is traditionally made from Reckitt's Blue powder - a substance historically used across the British Empire for bluing whites that was repurposed for skin bleaching. For Brice, the cultural practice and its integration into her own work is a means of 'obscuring naturalistic skin tones and interrupting an easy or preconditioned reading of the subject along ethnic lines.'
Brice studied at Michaelis School of Fine Art in Cape Town and settled in London following a residency at Gasworks in 1998. She has spent extended periods working in Trinidad where she participated in a workshop in Grande Riviere in 1999 and a residency in Port of Spain in 2000 with fellow artists Chris Ofili, Peter Doig and Emheyo Bahabba (Embah). In 2020, she presented a major solo exhibition, Smoke and Mirrors, at KM21, The Hague, which was followed by her inclusion in the lauded group exhibition Mixing It Up: Painting Today at the Hayward Gallery, London in 2021. She has presented further solo exhibitions at UK museums and public institutions including the Charleston Trust, Lewes (2021) and Tate Britain, London (2018).
Brice's work has also been featured in important group exhibitions at the Whitechapel Gallery, London (2022); Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas (2022); Camden Art Centre, London (2016); and South African National Gallery, Cape Town (2016). Her paintings are found in major public collections including Tate, London; Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington, D.C.; Johannesburg Art Gallery; South African National Gallery, Cape Town; and X Museum, Beijing. Brice’s work was included in Between the Islands at Tate Britain, London, in 2021–22, and is currently on view in Capturing The Moment at Tate Modern, London until 28 January 2024.
2023
LIVES and WORKS, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, France
Bar Games (1992 - 2023), Sadie Coles HQ, London, UK
2022
Last Chance Salon, Salon 94: LGDR, New York, USA
2021
Lisa Brice, Charleston Trust, Lewes, UK
2020
Smoke and Mirrors, KM21, The Hague, Netherlands
2019
Lisa Brice, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, UK
2018
Art Now: Lisa Brice, Tate Britain, London, UK
2017
Boundary Girl, Salon 94, New York, USA
Lisa Brice, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, UK
2015
Well Worn, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2014
Cut Your Coat, French Riviera, London, UK
2012
Throwing the Floor, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2009
More Wood for the Fire, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2007
Base One Two Three, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2006
Night Vision, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2003
Lisa Brice, Camouflage, Brussels, Belgium
2000
Work in Transit, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
1999
Lisa Brice, Hänel Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Lisa Brice, Galerie Frank Hänel, Frankfurt, Germany
1998
In The Eyes, Hänel Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
1997
Staying Alive, Hänel Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Staying Alive, Galerie Frank Hänel, Frankfurt, Germany
Life, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
1995
Power Tools, Galerie Frank Hänel, Frankfurt, Germany
1994
You Strike the Woman You Strike the Rock, Stargarder 18, Galerie Frank Hänel, Berlin, Germany
Plastic makes Perfect, Galerie Frank Hänel, Frankfurt, Germany
1993
Sex Kittens, Galerie Frank Hänel, Frankfurt, Germany
2025
A Room Hung With Thoughts: British Painting Now, Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas, TX, USA
2023
Capturing the Moment, Tate Modern, London, UK
2022
A Century of the Artist's Studio 1920-2020, Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK
Women Painting Women, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, TX, USA
2021
Lasting Influences, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
Mixing It Up: Painting Today, Hayward Gallery, London, UK
Life Between Islands: Caribbean-British Art 50s - Now, Tate Britain, London, UK
2020
25 Years, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, UK
Monster/Beauty: An Exploration of the Female/Femme Gaze, Lychee One, London, UK
This Corrosion, Modern Art, London, UK
A Contemporary Collection, Hepworth Wakefield, UK
2019
Artists I Steal From, cur. Julia Peyton-Jones and Alvaro Barrington, Thaddaeus Ropac, London, UK
2018
In Context, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2017
La Diablesse, Tramps, London, UK
New Acquisitions: Standard Bank Corporate Collection, Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2016
Summer Show, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Home Truths: Domestic Interiors in South African Collections, cur. Michael Godby, South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Making & Unmaking, Camden Art Centre, London, UK
New Revolutions: Goodman Gallery at 50, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2014
Puppet Show, cur. Tom Bloor and Celine Condorelli, Gävle Konstcentrum, Sweden; Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool, UK
2013
Lullaby, McCabe Fine Art, Stockholm, Sweden
The Suit, Copy Shop, Cape Town, South Africa
What we did the following year, Ritter Zamet Galerie, London, UK
2011
Krakow Photomonth Festival, cur. Adam Broomberg, Oliver Chanarin and Francesca Astenasi, Poland
Beguiling: The Self and Subject, cur. Kirsty Cockerill, Irma Stern Museum, Cape Town, South Africa
2010
Self-Consciousness, cur. Peter Doig and Hilton Als, VeneKlasen/Werner, Berlin, Germany
Open End, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
The Marks We Make, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
1910-2010: From Pierneef to Gugulective, South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
BIP2010 (Out of) Control, Musée d'Art Moderne et d'Art Contemporain, Leige, Belgium
Winter Show, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2009
Legacies of the Landscape, Michaelis Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2007
Lift Off Two, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2006
ISLEP, Brussels, Belgium
2005
Next Flag: The African Sniper Project, Migros Museum, Zürich, Switzerland
2004
A Decade of Democracy, cur. Emma Bedford, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
X, Stephen Lawrence Gallery, University of Greenwich, London, UK
Les Afriques, cur. Laurent Jacob, Tri Postal, Lille, France
2003
Away From Home, Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH, USA
Intersections: South African Art from the BHP Billiton Collection, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia
Bootleg, cur. Craig Burnett, Sarah Craine Jones, Pernila Holmes, Pablo Lafuenta, Tom Norton and Catherine Patha, Spitalfields Market, London, UK
Resident: Works on Paper, cur. Peter Doig and Charlotte Elias, CCA7, Port of Spain, Trinidad
New Strategies, cur. David Brodie, Johannesburg Art Gallery, South Africa
Picnic, cur. Andrew Lamprecht, Bell-Roberts Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Free Nelson Mandela, cur. Sean O'Toole, Klein Karoo National Art Festival, Oudtshoorn, South Africa
2002
DAK'ART, Dakar Biennale, Senegal
Paradise, CCA7, Port of Spain, Trinidad
2001
Young Generations in Transition: China, Germany, Britain, He Xiangning Art Museum, Shenzhen, China
Supermarketed, cur. Chris Mew, Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A), London, UK
2000
Archive, Quartier Contemporary Art Space, The Hague, Netherlands
Securing the Future, cur. Marilyn Martin for the International AIDS Conference, touring South Africa and USA
Havana Biennale, Cuba
1998
Triennale deer Kleinplastik, cur. Wener Mayer, Stadtisthe Gallery, Göppingen, Germany
FNB Vita Awards, Sandton Civic Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
The Body, City, and Society, Saint Gilies, Brussels
1997
Smokkel, 2nd Johannesburg Biennale Fringe, South Africa
Unplugged, Rembrandt Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
30 Minutes, Robben Island Visitors Block, Cape Town, South Africa
Life, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
End of the Millennium, South African Festival, Nantes, France
1996
Opening Exhibition, Hänel Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Vita Art Now, Johannesburg Art Gallery, South Africa
Colours, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany
Groundswell, Mermaid Theatre Gallery, London, UK
Don't Mess with Mr Inbetween, cur. Ruth Rosengarten, Culturgest, Lisbon, Portugal
3 x 10, Hänel Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
1995
Scurvy - Secret Seven, Newtown Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
Springtime in Chile, cur. Wayne Barker, Museum of Contemporary Art, Santiago, Chile
B Young South African Exhibition, Galerie Frank Hänel, Frankfurt, Germany
The Laager, cur. Wayne Barker, Johannesburg, South Africa
1994
Three-person Show, cur. Jean Kampf, Gallery Goetz, Basel, Switzerland
Junge Kunst International, Overbeck-Gessellschaft, Lübeck, Germany
Election X, cur. Malcolm Payne, SAAA, Cape Town, South Africa
1993
AIDS Show, SAAA, Cape Town, South Africa
Volkskas Atelier Awards, nationwide exhibition, South Africa
Multicultural, Galerie Frank Hänel, Frankfurt, Germany
1992
Three-person Show, Irma Stern Museum, Cape Town, South Africa
Three-person Show, Galerie Frank Hänel, Frankfurt, Germany
Sculpture Exhibition, University Gallery, Stellenbosch, South Africa
Grosse Dusseldorfer Kunstaustelling, Germany
Staff Exhibition, University Gallery, Stellenbosch, South Africa
1991
Cape Triennial, nationwide exhibition, South Africa
1990
Poster Exhibition, Baxter Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Poster Exhibition, Michaelis School of Fine Art Exhibition, University of Cape Town, South Africa
1989
Mail Art from South Africa - a view from the inside, Soho 20 Gallery, New York, USA
Visual Arts Exhibition, Uluntu Center, Guguletu; Center for African Studies, University of Cape Town, South Africa
1988
Artists for Human Rights, Expo Exhibition Center, Durban, South Africa
China
X Museum, Beijing
UK
The Hepworth Wakefield
South African High Commission, London
Tate, London
Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester
USA
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA
Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington, D.C.
South Africa
BHP Billiton Collection, Johannesburg
Johannesburg Art Gallery
Michaelis Cabinet, University of Cape Town
SABC Collection, Johannesburg
South African National Gallery, Cape Town